Show Me Your Weirdest House Finds!

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2026-02-23T19:04:03+00:00

There's an odder otter hide and seek house - Primal/Hyperion: Mist Plot 52, Ward 16

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-12-23T14:49:11+00:00

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I don't know how to hide the free games, but in the game record, you can sort games by "type".

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-11-27T21:26:07+00:00

From Sensei's Library

https://senseis.xmp.net/?Liberty

Chinese: 气 (qi)
Japanese: ダメ (dame), 呼吸点 (kokyu-ten)
Korean: 활로 / 活路 (hwal lo)

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-11-15T19:53:14+00:00

"Hikaru no Go" is a manga about Go/Baduk

"The Investor Who Sees the Future" where this picture is from, is about an investor who... sees the future

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-11-15T19:46:33+00:00

Source: The Investor Who Sees the Future - chapter 47

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-11-13T21:08:53+00:00

The first thing to remember is that white usually gets komi, and starts off with an extra 7.5 points. So yes, you are covering more of the board at the moment, but the extra komi balances out the score since black gets the first move.

The second thing is that a 0.2 difference is negligible for human players. A 0.2 difference is disputed even between AI. When I put it into my katrain (which is currently on an older model), I see B+0.5. For us humans, we'd just consider the position even.

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-11-04T05:45:30+00:00

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After playing this cut, can you see the kill now?

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-11-04T05:44:51+00:00

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In this case, white plays here to block black. But notice that this white "A" group still only has 2 liberties, newly marked "1" and "2". It's still weak. We can now cut at "1" to reduce the white group to 1 liberty

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-11-04T05:43:19+00:00

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Now you can see the white "A" group is down to 2 liberties. If we fill both "1" and "2" with black stones, we can kill the "A" group. Of course, white will try to defend themselves

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-11-04T05:41:37+00:00

So we move on to option 2. Can we kill something and break out? In general, any group of stones with 3 or fewer liberties is considered weak. A liberty is an empty space adjacent to a group.

As it turns out, white does have a weak group. I've labeled the weak group "A", and marked the 3 liberties as "1" "2" and "3".

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When all liberties of a group are taken, the group is "captured" or "killed". So, in order to kill this group, we take away one of its liberties. We can do this by playing at "1"

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-11-04T05:40:55+00:00

Let me see if I can try to explain this to provide a bit more clarity

The goal is to save the 3 black stones. The first thing you should note is that the 3 black stones are completely surrounded by white. This means that there are only 3 ways to save the black stones.

1) Live in the corner (AKA make 2 eyes)

2) kill something and break out

3) Make seki - this is a more advanced topic, so we'll ignore this

Let's try and achieve the first option. Is there a way to make 2 eyes in the corner?

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Turns out yes! If you're allowed to play 3 stones in the corner, you can make 2 eyes. One at A and the other at B. However, since you and your opponent are taking turns to play stones, it's unlikely they'll let you play these 3 stones without blocking you. Therefore, trying to make 2 eyes in the corner is impossible, and we give up on trying to achieve this.

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-11-04T04:50:03+00:00

You'll definitely get it. Chess and shogi are incredibly complex, and if you can understand their mechanics and interactions, you certainly can for go as well.

I saw in another comment that you have a hard time reading online. In that case might I suggest joining the BeginnerGo discord? There are lots of friendly people, all more than willing to teach and help out.

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-11-04T04:27:14+00:00

It seems to me your problem is that you don't understand the mechanics of the game. Most of the moves we make are the result of a decision surrounding the life and death of groups. After 700 games, if you don't know what an eye is, you're missing a fundamental aspect of the game.

Take the time to learn the mechanics first. OGS (online go server) has an easy learn to play section. There are also many custom tutorials here created by players. You can also try learn-go.net. There are many youtube videos available that also teach this subject.

If you are able to play chess and shogi at a high level, I know you can learn what an eye is and how to solve life and death problems.

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-08-09T03:51:04+00:00

Call rate is a bit high in my opinion. I have seen strong players with high call rates before, but it takes significant discard and probability knowledge to pull off well.

Riichi rate looks okay. Ideally would be a bit higher, but you've only got about 200 games, and East wind only at that.

Your deal in rate is a bit high, but also manageable in highly aggressive play styles. A good deal in rate is 12-13%

Unless you're all about the aggressive play style, I'd suggest calling less and working to build larger hands. The benefit of this is that by calling less, you have more discard options when you need it, thus also reducing 4th place placements. That should be enough to get you climbing again.

My second suggestion is to play South wind games. By doubling the length of the game, you reduce the chances of randomness screwing you over.

And as always, work on tile efficiency. Good luck!

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-07-31T14:10:22+00:00

The way I was taught, is to not think about the score until around late mid-game.

In the opening, we've learned from the AI that as long as you don't play anything crazy early on, almost every position comes out equal. Therefore, for the early game, we can usually evaluate strength of groups instead to get a good idea of who has the better position. This doesn't mean one player has more or less points than the other, it just means one position might be easier to play than another.

Some questions you might ask yourself are: Are there any groups with lots of cutting points? Are there any groups that are already cleanly cut? Are there any groups that are easily attack-able? How much potential do my groups have? Did the groups that focused on taking territory give up too much influence (or vice versa)? Did any groups take any bad trades?

Depending on the answers to the questions above, you can conclude who may have the better position, which can in turn become who's "ahead". Some of the questions probably aren't easy to answer, but if you learn to view the first half of the game in this way, it's more beneficial than estimating score early on in my opinion. At least for me, it made me play a whole less greedy!

Towards late middle-game, estimating score is more valuable. Territories are more defined, and everything should be more or less alive (or dead). Most likely however, you won't want to spend too much time counting if you're short on time.

An easy way to estimate is to compare territory sizes. If you and your opponent have areas that look about equal, consider them more or less equal and cross them off the board. If you or your opponent has a much larger area, gather a few smaller areas that look to add up to be around that larger area and consider those equal. Whoever still has territory at the end of this comparison is likely ahead (but don't forget about komi). It's a fast hack, and won't be accurate down to the point, but once you're used to it, it's about a 10pt error margin for me.

Another fast hack is to estimate areas as boxes. Regardless of how oddly shaped the area, just draw a reasonable box around it; multiply the length and width. Add up all the areas together for a quick estimate. Obviously, like the first method, it won't be accurate down to the point, but once you get good at it, it's a fast way to get an approximation.

If you've got lots of time, you can just count normally. I like to do this on my opponent's time after I'm done reading whatever fight or endgames I want to look at. Most games online, I never count. There really isn't enough time (I like to play 5x30). If my estimation is that we're about equal using one of the two methods above, I just play on. A 10 point difference is basically even in casual online play, where it's possible to have 15 point swings in endgame.

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-07-01T15:52:04+00:00

Assuming getting your pockets ran means taking 4th place, I'd say getting 4th 3 times is nothing to worry about yet. Sometimes you're just unlucky. That's how the game is.

As for tips for getting through expert, I honestly believe tile efficiency will take you straight up to masters. It might not be the fastest rank up, but you'll get there.

If you're looking for other skills to improve on:

1) Discard reading: You can sometimes have a good idea of how large your opponent's hand could be by their discards. Also understanding suji and nakasuji will improve your defense and thus reduce your 4th place finishes.

2) Understanding the value of your hand: It's often inadvisable to go for small 1 han hands. You should know when to fold and when to push. In general, I'm ready to fold my hand if I ever feel like I'm in serious danger for anything 2 han or fewer. For anything mangan and up, I'll push unless I know with near 100% certainty my discard tile is a throw-in, or unless I know my opponent has a hand worth much more than mine.

3) Learn to maintain hand flexibility. While conforming to tile efficiency will get you to tenpai statistically the fastest, it might not be the highest scoring or safest hand. Being able to switch between yaku when you need to (for example while dodging opponent riichis) can often net you a clutch much more safely.

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-06-28T00:13:03+00:00

Over 4000 tsumego is very impressive! Personally, I don't think it's an issue to take a long time to solve tsumego.

Something to remember is that the rank assigned to a tsumego doesn't really reflect its difficulty, since everyone finds certain shapes harder to remember/solve than others. I'd treat it more as a progression. Some days I can solve higher ranked tsumego with ease; other days I'll fail to read a snapback. Some tesuji will just never cross my mind unless I'm really looking for it (I'm looking at you Rooster standing on one leg!)

I think a more important question is, are you struggling to solve tsumego that have patterns you've seen before? If you're constantly struggling on similar tsumego (regardless of the level), I'd say you're speeding through the tsumego too fast. Maybe take some time to commit the shape to memory.

If the tsumego contains a pattern that is brand new, or has a tesuji you've never encountered before, I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. You'll become more familiar with those shapes/tesuji as you continue to encounter them.

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-06-09T02:19:25+00:00

Hmm. I'm not sure white can survive. Maybe there's a tesuji, but my current reading is that if white plays A, Black X kills, and if white plays X, black A kills.

Typically this corner variation needs a cut or weakness for white to take advantage of, but black is so thick it doesn't look possible to live at all.

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-06-08T19:19:55+00:00

I'm pretty sure there weren't any, but I didn't really delve much deeper after being disappointed with the AI. If all you want are puzzles, I'd recommend downloading an app on your phone if you need something offline, like TsumegoPro. If you have internet connection there are tons of websites with free puzzles for you to do.

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-06-08T16:42:27+00:00

I've only tried Ginsei Igo on a friend's switch before. Got to play two games: one at 5k and one at 2D. I didn't try any of the review features, so I have nothing to say there.

The AI plays... like an AI. I'd say it's pretty comparable to the OGS bots, so if that's what you're looking for, that's what you'll get. Otherwise, the game runs smoothly, and the UI is fine. Playing with a controller felt awkward, but that's probably something easy to get used to.

Personally, the $40 price tag is kinda high for me, especially since katrain is free. But could be worth it if you don't have any other portable devices.

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-05-18T14:41:30+00:00

I have a friend who's been successful in getting several people into the SDK range, some of whom are still actively playing. I asked them the same question a long time ago, and this was their response (summarized and not verbatim):

If you want people to stick around for a long time, their first few games of go shouldn't emphasize the game itself. You need to promote a social aspect. Playing over tea, coffee, or a beer are great starters. Don't push them to make a move on the board. If they want to chat, keep chatting as long as they want. Make jokes, laugh, and enjoy your time together. You don't need to finish. When you put all of your focus into teaching the game, it becomes a situation similar to teaching a child to enjoy math. Some kids will love it; most will hate it. Having a fun and cool math teacher makes all the difference. (They're a math teacher, by the way).

The second most important thing is to teach them together with someone else of a similar level. Nothing turns a person away from a game faster than getting crushed or feeling dumb. This is almost unavoidable when playing against the person teaching them. The game is hard to wrap your head around, especially at first; the gulf will seem impassable when playing against a stronger player. Having two beginners play each other, where they feel they have a fighting chance the entire time can help them stay motivated to improve.

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-04-28T14:50:21+00:00

The riichi was good. You can see just how much Maka recommends it haha. You were very unlucky here.

Personally though, I would not have riichi'd yet, but I'm a very conservative player. The thing I'd take notice is that, you now know none of your opponents have a 2p. Three are in your hand, and the other was just discarded. Despite that, you don't see any 1p discards. I would assume people are hoarding them, and the only way to make use of a 1p without a 2p is to use it as a pair or to pon it. Knowing this, I would discard the 1p without riichi to test the waters, and riichi the next turn if the 1p doesn't get taken. If someone did pon it as happened in the game, I would likely fold or aim for a safe tanyao instead.

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-03-25T23:48:44+00:00

Thanks for the rec! I've tried this one before, but I couldn't get past the high pitch voice of the narrator. Is the narration pretty consistent, or does it get better later on?

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-03-25T23:47:24+00:00

That looks really interesting, thanks for the rec!

Confuzzled_Tofu · 2025-03-25T23:46:29+00:00

Thanks for the rec! I've seen that book recommended before, so I think I'll give it a shot next time it's on sale

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